Friday, December 30, 2011

Nail Junk #1

Yay! I got acrylics put on yesterday!!! I'm super excited, now I can do all sorts of funky things to my nails. Those plastic things were just not cutting it. I can't decide what to do for my first manicure though...I put on two coats of cheapo pearl last night but my nails looked kind of lumpy...So I took that off and gave my nails a good buff. I went to Expo Nails, that's in Lancaster, CA btw, right next to my smoke shop. I hadn't been there before. If you go tell her the big lady with the cotton candy hair sent you! Maybe she'll freaking let go of that merch. I went to two other places before settling on that one, I wanted a damned discount since I wasn't having them painted but no one would bite so I just jumped on in. She was busy so I took a seat in front of the counter where there was a TON of polish and gems. I asked her if they use any of that on the clients, she said no, they just sell it...She charges $7 for the OPI and $3 for the China Glaze, which is good but some of it looks like it's been there for 10 years...I told her I'd give her a plug in my blog, so she should give me some free stuff, she didn't bite :)
I've been watching videos on "how to" do every damned thing for months and I can't get anything to work :( Fuck a bunch a water marbling. Gradient nails work out fabulously. I do highly recommend putting Vaseline or A&D ointment around your nail though, it's messy and then you can just wipe your fingers off instead of spending another hour screwing up your nails with a q-tip and a cap full of nail polish remover. Another hint: use a sharp, narrow paint brush instead of the q-tip. That way you'll have more control and you're less likely to take off the polish you want to STAY on your nail. Don't you hate that? You're almost done, you're just cleaning up the lat couple of nails and you try to get that last little bit of erroneous nail polish and you take half the nail's with it. I've been looking for one of those super long brushes like the ones in the skinny nail art polishes. You know the ones, the ones the peeps in the salons wield like swords, never making a mistake. I lucked into one...I was at a beauty supply joint, one that I'm sure I've dropped over a thousand bucks at over the years, and the cashier rang me up and I said that was cheap, I've never gotten out of there so cheap! I had a buttload of stuff that was on sale so I didn't suspect anything nefarious...I picked up my bag and there was my long brush, not even rung up. Well, somehow that brush just jumped right into my bag...I love that store! That was a $10 brush! Sometimes you have a good day. Well, I haven't had a good day since 2005 so this year has really been great. I haven't had the balls to try the brush out yet, I'm afraid I won't be up to it's fabulousnness. I didn't mention this first but I should have!!! I wasn't supposed to get my nails done, I had to get my hair cut and I needed smokes this week. Wah. But when I got to Supercuts I remembered that we had filled up my stamp card so my haircut was free!! Awesome! So that's the only reason I was able to get them done. See, even though things might suck for several years one day you'll have a good month or so. I promise.
Another tip: I've been looking for the perfect dotting tool for AGES. I swear I've used every thing in this house to try to get the perfect dotting tool, nada. They were out at the shop too, figures. This morning I was struck by inspiration! What if I took my useless little wooden cuticle pushers, I never use them anyway, clipped the very tip off the pointy end, file it down a little bit and give it a shot? It freaking worked like it was my job yo! I was so impressed I tried to make one even smaller, that worked too! I've tried them before, and toothpicks, but they didn't pick up enough paint. Whoo hooo! So, now what do I want to do to my damned nails?? Something with the dots or do I try the brush? Major find at Michael's: Huge scrap booking stamp with small Chinese symbols all over it! It's freaking epic, the symbols are the perfect size for nails but I have no clue what they mean...I'm going to post it to Facebook to see if someone can help me out. I think I'll practice with the brush a bit then decide what to do with my nails.
Another tip: When messing around with testing implements or even when applying patterns to nails think about using acrylic craft paint instead of your precious nail polish. I've got a whole box of them left over from another craft and they're really cheap, not to mention of you were using them for nails they'd last forever!
One more tip: I've been playing around with the idea of mixing my own polishes or making my own glitter polishes with my jumbo ball of topcoat and a series of glitters I got at Sally's on sale...Then I found in the paint aisle at Michael's 12 plastic jars with lids! Perfect, now I can save my polish mixtures and put my glitters in there. I think they were only $2.99 as well.
My mind is a hamster wheel.

About Me

I am a 45 year old mother of 2, still married, almost 26 years. I'm an Amazon, a Viking, a Sasquatch. I'm tall and have big feet and never back down from a battle!! Well, I don't know about that last part. And now I have purple and pink hair :)